A Cold Evening in March, and How to Keep the Room Warm

Visitors who come to Amsterdam in March are usually rewarded with light: long clear afternoons, the first tables outside the cafes, crocuses in the Vondelpark. They are also caught out by the evenings, which turn cold the moment the sun drops behind the gables. The cold matters more than you might expect for an evening booking, and it is entirely within your control.

Why lying still feels colder

A room that feels comfortable while you are reading in an armchair, fully dressed, feels a good deal cooler when you are lying still on a bed without clothes for an hour or two. Hotel thermostats are usually set for the first situation. The difference is several degrees, and it is the thing guests say, more often than anything else, that they wish they had fixed sooner.

An hour ahead, not ten minutes

Hotel heating is slow. Many rooms use a fan unit that circulates air and takes a long time to change the temperature of the walls and the bed, and older buildings rely on radiators that work steadily but never quickly. Turn the heating up about an hour before she is due. If you are out at dinner, do it before you leave rather than when you get back.

Close the windows at the same time. Amsterdam hotel rooms often have tall windows that open inwards, and a window left ajar for fresh air in the afternoon will undo the heating quietly all evening.

Curtains and draughts

In the older canal houses, the windows themselves are the weak point. Single panes, old frames and gaps around the sashes let the cold in even when closed. Draw the heavy curtains as soon as it is dark; they make a noticeable difference. If there is a draught along the floor from the door, a rolled towel at the base of it does the job.

Warmth she brings, and warmth she asks about

She brings her own towels and oil, and she asks when she arrives whether the room is warm enough. She means the question. If it is not, say so, and the two of you can wait a few minutes or adjust the thermostat further before anything begins. The first quarter hour of every visit is set aside for exactly this kind of practical agreement, and it is part of the time you booked.

Coming in from the cold yourself

If you have been out walking until dusk, you come back with cold hands and a cold coat, and the room will feel warmer to you than it really is. Give it a quarter of an hour before judging. Hang the coat away from the bed. The aim is simple: by the time she knocks, the room should feel comfortable to someone who has been sitting in it in a shirt, not to someone who has just come in from the canal.

Apartments in the cold months

If you are in a rented apartment, choose the warmest room rather than the grandest. The large front room with three windows onto the canal is lovely by day and hard to heat by night. A smaller bedroom at the back, away from the street and the glass, is often several degrees warmer and quieter as well. Mention in the thread which room it will be and how to reach it.

The bed and the blankets

An extra blanket from the wardrobe, laid at the foot of the bed, is worth having within reach. Some guests like to be partly covered at the start while the room finishes warming; others never need it. Extra pillows, asked for from housekeeping in the afternoon, make lying face down more comfortable to arrange.

Early spring bookings

March is a quiet month in Amsterdam, and the roster tends to have open evenings. The forty to sixty minute window from confirmation to her knock applies across central Amsterdam, and the figures are the same as at any other time of year: 180 euros for an hour, 270 for ninety minutes, 360 for two hours. On a first booking with the house, half goes ahead.

The page on a slower start and a warmer room covers the bed, the light and the rest of the room in more detail, and the roster shows who keeps evening hours.